The Valamar Riviera company has decided to temporarily close two hotels in Istria and two in Dubrovnik due to COVID-19, and various protective measures for employees and business are being undertaken by other hotel companies, most of which register cancellations or a reduction in bookings until June.
Emphasising that they had decided to close the two hotels, Diamant in Porec and Sanifor in Rabac, after the competent authorities' recommendations and the Istria County's decision to limit public gatherings and to close schools, kindergartens, and other public institutions, the Valamar hotel company stated on Friday that there were neither suspected nor confirmed cases of COVID-19 in any of their hotels, including the two closed ones.
"We think that the National Civil Protection Authority is handling this unusual situation efficiently, and that the only responsible procedure is to follow their recommendations and decisions with the common goal of furthering prevention. Tourism is an extremely important sector of economy, and Valamar will continue to closely cooperate with the competent authorities in order to be able to resume preparations for the coming tourist season as soon as possible," Valamar concluded.
Maistra, LRH, Plava laguna hotel companies also register cancellations of bookings
Maistra, one of the largest hotel groups in Croatia and a part of the Adris Grupa company, announced on Friday via the Zagreb Stock Exchange that it had already registered the negative influence of the COVID-19 situation, noting that after the introduction of contingency measures, that is, after the Crisis Management Committee issued recommendations, cancellations of accommodation and conference reservations for March, April, and May had started, mostly in the the segment of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions).
Plava Laguna, another major hotel group in Croatia which manages hotels in Istria (Porec and Umag), stated that they registered cancellations proportionate to 25% of their plan for March and April in the period from the end of February to mid-March, but that they did not register cancellations for peak season at the moment.
The Palace hotel, one of the oldest in Zagreb, stated that after the introduction of contingency measures and recommendations they started registering cancellations of accommodation and conference reservations for March, April, and May, while a significant number of cancellations had not yet been registered for the period starting with June, but that there were no new inquiries from the market.
HUT: Most hotels to be closed next two weeks
The Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), whose members are 14 biggest hotel companies in Croatia and the largest associations of the Croatian tourism sector, said on Friday that a large majority of hotels in the country would close their doors next two weeks.
However, it notes that at least a hotel in each seaside destination and several hotels in the capital city would be open.
HUT has also defined bailout measures to help the hospitality sector hit by the developments surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19.
(Hina)
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